perfection.

Have you read this post by Single Dad Laughing titled "The Disease called Perfection"? (Click HERE to read it.)  It's grand.  Along with a lot of his other posts.  Not everything he says on his blog is right on tap with what I believe.  Like, I'm not sure about embracing my weaknesses.  I think that we can admit that we have weaknesses, so that we can look to Christ and have Him help us overcome them. 

Autn:reference - http://scriptures.lds.org/ether/12/27#27

Ether 12:27"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

My opinion is this...I do think that this life is a journey toward perfection, but I think that what this world perceives as perfect is different than that perfection that God asks us to strive for.  In the words of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin:

"Indeed, the Savior Himself admonished us to strive to be “perfect, even as [our] Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). As much as we want to obey that commandment, however, we also understand the difficulty of attaining perfection in this life.

To that end I am grateful for the insight of Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who has written: “In the Greek from which it was translated, the term perfect in Matthew 5:48 [Matt. 5:48] … means ‘fully developed,’ to become ‘finished’ as to our individual potential and to have ‘completed’ the course God has set forth for us to follow. … All of the godly attributes, to the degree developed through our ‘diligence and obedience,’ will actually rise with us in the resurrection, giving us ‘so much the advantage in the world to come’ (D&C 130:19)” (Men and Women of Christ

Perfection is worth striving for even if it is ultimately unattainable in this life. For it is through our struggle to become like the Savior and His Father that we ourselves become perfected. If we follow the pattern that Christ set for us, we will be responding to the scriptural mandate to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him” (Moro. 10:32)."[1991], 21–22). 
Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Guided by His Exemplary Life,” Liahona, Feb 1999, 34

Does that make me feel like I need to be perfect?  In a way.  But does it make you feel like I need to like up to the standards the world has set for the perfect body and the perfect hair and the perfect husband and the perfect children?  No, it makes me feel supported in my life journey.  It makes me want to be what the LORD wants me to be, not what the WORLD wants me to be.  And I believe that is good.

I readily agree with is opinion that people need to be more "real."  Then, we could all feel a little better about not being so perfect.  I think, aside from the Savior, we would find that...no one is.


If I told you some of my imperfections, you would find that...
I spend to much time on the computer, and sometimes my child plays by herself on the living room floor while I am sitting at the keyboard.  Which she is doing right now. 
I criticize my husband about...A LOT, for really small things that don't matter and for really large things too, and sometimes I criticize him to or in front of other people. (sorry babe,  that one I'm working on).
I am awful at calling friends and family.
I have a bad habit of starting things and never finishing them.
I have a fear of calling even good friends to ask them to hang out or do me a favor.
I don't save money, if I am given a wad of cash to do what I want with (or even sometimes grocery money), I will spend it within a couple days on clothes, crafts, or fast food (so thank goodness for a husband that saves).
I LOVE fast food, even greasy McDonald's cheeseburgers.
I love junk food.
I am not a flexible person, I try to be, but when things are not going my way, or shall we say the way I have planned, I tend to get uptight and even angry.
I wish I had bigger boobs.
I swear, usually under my breath, sometimes out loud, when I get hurt or mad or even inconvenienced.
I get so frustrated when my house is NOT organized.
I judge people.
I gossip.
I laugh at dirty jokes.
I chuck things when I'm really mad.

Okay...I think that's a long enough list for today.  And... there are other imperfections that I just won't tell.  I will never admit them here, and no one needs to know besides me and God.  I hope I have made some of you feel that you are not alone in some of your imperfections.  So with all that said...
 

Go.  Read it.  Tell me what you think.  Please.  I'm curious.

eleven months.

Hannah with Bear at 11 months...(the best shot I could get.)

Hannah,

Only one more month and you will be ONE!  I don't know where time has taken us.  I hope that I have made the best of your time as a baby.  I am seeing that little baby starting to do things that toddlers do and I have to admit that I am not ready for that yet!  However, there are lots of things that you are doing and of course, we need to remember them!

At 11 months you are:

• Eating mostly table food and finger feeding yourself.  No more baby food, you just spit it out and make your yuck face!
• You have learned to give us kisses, at first your kisses were only reserved for Mommy and of course, I relished that!  But now you give big kisses to Mommy, Daddy and even your little baby doll.  Sometimes you will stick out your tongue and give us big slobbery wet kisses!  WE LOVE IT!
• You are starting to "get" how to play with certain toys, you will put in and take out toys from a container, you will take the rings off of the stacking rings toy, you will bang blocks together, you will "try" to roll a ball back to me when I roll it to you, etc.
• You are starting to understand what things we say mean.  For instance, when I say "Do you want to go outside? or on a walk?"  you crawl to the door.  Or when I say "Are you hungry?"  you crawl into the kitchen.  Or "Are you all done?" (eating) You pump your hands up and down in the air. 
• You hate getting your diaper changed and as soon as the diaper comes off, you are turning to your belly and crawling across to the other side of the room with your cute little nakie bum behind you!   How can I not laugh!  That is, until it comes time to put your diaper back on, then it's like the world is coming to an end!
• You are starting to enjoy books more and more.  You will be holding a book and come over to me and tap on my knee or face.  I take it that you want me to read to you and you gladly sit on my lap and enjoy turning the pages and listening to me make all sorts of funny noises for the animals and such.  Sometimes you try to copy my dog and lamb sounds. :)
• No more words besides ma-ma and da-da yet, but you sure do like to say Da-da, Da-da, Da-da. ALL. THE. TIME! :)  You really only say Mama when you are sad, sleepy, or in your crib awake after sleeping or in the middle of the night.  The other day I asked if you wanted a banana and you said "na-na!"  But I have not heard it since.
• You have started standing by yourself a few seconds at a time.
• You have started to dance spontaneously when upbeat music comes on, I cannot tell you how much this makes me SMILE!  Eeeeee!
• You are a screamer!  It doesn't matter if you are mad or happy, you like to hear yourself make screaming noises!  Personally, I like the happy ones WAY better than the mad ones!
• You have been paying more attention to the TV.  Yes, I admit it, I never thought I would let my baby watch TV, but Elmo and Baby Einstein are life savers while I am preparing dinner!  You start to get excited when I turn on the TV and you see the little Baby Einstein caterpillar crawling onto the screen.  That's really the only time you watch TV though at this point.  You are to busy the rest of the time to even pay attention!  I guess that's good. :)

• This mornong you were in bed with Mommy and Daddy and you started clapping!  LOVE IT!
• You have a total of 7 teeth.
• The biggest thing this month is that you are finally SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!  HA-LE-LU-YAH!  My friend Suzi introduced me to a book called Good Night Sleep Tight and thanks to her and the Sleep-Lady Shuffle you can now put yourself to sleep and stay asleep from about 8 PM to 6:30/7 AM most nights.  You still wake sometimes, but that is to be expected and it's usually only for a few minutes and you go back to sleep, or I rock you for a minute or two and sing a song and then put you back in your crib and you go back to sleep.  Sigh.  It's wonderful!  I still rock you to sleep for naps but you are sleeping better through those anyway, plus I love to hold and cuddle my little sleeping baby...it won't last much longer that way! (Edited: I wrote this on 10/3/10, 2 days ago, and the past two nights Hannah has been waking 2 or 3 times a night...teething?  growing?  big milestone?  who knows.  But I think I jinxed myself for writing it!)
• You have turned into a little cuddle-bug and we love it.  Today during General Conference you cuddled with Dad for about 15 minutes or so.  You cuddle big time when it is time to nap or go to bed (however, you are still so wiggly when you do this, like you are trying to get comfortable or something!  You make me laugh!)  And this morning you were cuddling with me in our bed for awhile, it was great.

Oh baby, baby!  We love you more than we can express!

Love, Mama and Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada...

Happy girl.

Enjoying a walk in the brisk fall air.

Cuddles with Dad.

Enjoying some mandarin oranges (with some evidence of chocolate shake).

Hmm...saving some for later?

Caught in the act...one of Hannah's favorite places to play make a mess.

Our little yogi.

Playing with the stacking rings.

"Mary had a little lamb."

"All Done!"

Enjoying a popsicle-I love that happy look in her eyes!

Cuddlin' with Mama. (Don't judge the smeared eye makeup-i just woke up yo!)

Loving the whipped cream for conference crepes!

Cuddlin' with Dadums.

Cute bum, but I need to finish changing your diaper!!!

and just so you get a picture of how active this little girlie is...here is one of MANY of the "un"cooperative photos from our 11 month photo shoot...

a drive.

My husband had the day off.

My little girl enjoyed something new.

Her Daddy enjoyed it just as much as she did.

We were spontaneous.
We picked a random destination, and my husband sat in the driver's seat.
I was the one who controlled the radio.

I love when he turns the radio off and starts up some random conversation, it reminds me of our first date...when he asked me a million questions and I felt like I was in an interview with someone who was going to write my life story.

We saw old barns.

We saw old buildings.

 I love America.

I love being in the country.

We enjoyed a sunset over a small reservoir.

We ate at a BBQ joint that wasn't that great.

We had a cooperative baby in the backseat.

Wednesday was a good day.